new york. >> she's really great. >> she's absolutely the star. unfortunately, a very sad story that she was helping out with, but she became quite a star. >> that's it for us. thanks for watching. erin burnett and "outfront" starts right now. next, escalation is really soldiers moving to the border of gaza in preparation for a possible ground invasion. another prominent republican disavows the comments mitt romney made about president obama's gifts to minority voters. how can the gop reinvent itself post romney? and surprising revelations in david petraeus' testimony on capitol hill today. he said he knew immediately after the attack in libya who was responsible but then something changed. let's go o"outfront."

i'm tom foreman in for erin burnett. "outfront" tonight on the edge of war. the u.s. is preparing for a possible ground invasion into gaza. hundreds of israeli troops have been moved to the gaza border and another 75,000 reservists are being called to serve as the violence intensifies. this as president obama gets the phone call that tfrom the israe prime minister to get an update on the tent situation and gets briefed by henry morrissey who he hopes can dissuade the conflict. ten people have been killed in gaza and three people in israel. today they released their largest air raid in decades, including jerusalem. their air sirens echoed. hamas also fired several rockets at the coastal city of tel aviv. in this dangerous game of tit for tat, both sides are vowing

to press ahead. sara seidner is live in gaza where she showed her support for the people there. sara, you've done remarkable work covering this for people around the clock. what is happening in gaza now? are people bracing for a ground assault from israel? >> they're certainly worried about one, very, very worried about a ground assault. they've been dealing all day with air strikes, and we have seen them ourselves. we've had to take cover several times. these air strikes are getting louder and more and more powerful, it sounds like, throughout the day, but we are also seeing the skies criss-cross with the telltale sign of rocket fire, seeing the trail of smoke that rockets often leave behind. now, we do also know that the hospitals here are becoming overwhelmed. the main hospital we visited today, there were people coming in every 15 minutes, sometimes coming in by ambulance, sometimes it was just neighbors

and friends and family members driving their cars up to the emergency side and people being pulled out of cars and onto stretchers. the doctors there saying they are overwhelmed, they are seeing men, women and children coming into that hospital. we're talking about more than 240 people now injured and 30 people dead. there is a great deal of concern, though, of the air strikes are, as israel has put it, targeted air strikes, certain areas being targeted, particularly looking at militants, trying to target them and looking at places where these rockets are coming from, trying to target the weapons that hamas and other militant groups that operate out of here are using. but when it comes to a ground war, people feel very differently about that, very concerned about the possibility of having thousands of troops come in here from israel. >> is there any sense there among people in gaza that there could be any real effective resistance to a ground war because israel simply has such a powerful military compared to

anything there? >> well, i talked to one of the hamas leaders just yesterday night, and we talked a little bit about that. because when you talk to defense experts who are looking at what people have here and what hamas, for example, has here as far as weaponry goes, the main thought is that they have more and more sophisticated weapons that they've been able to smuggle in, for example, through the egyptian border and under the tunnels and weapons that have been given to them in part by iran. now, when we talked about that, they wouldn't come out and say, yes, we've been getting more and more weapons from iran, but they did say they did have more sophisticated weapons but certainly nothing compared to what israel had, and they said they knew that they would pay a heavy price, a much heavier price than israel would pay if this turned into a full-scale war, tom. >> all right, sara sidner, magnificent work there.

appreciate your words tonight. the situation, of course, is very, very tense right along the gaza border with israel. our senior national correspondent is standing by in israel. this is a place where they have suffered a lot of rocket attacks from gaza. what are folks thinking there now, ben? >> reporter: well, we spoke to the mayor a little while ago who said in the last three days more than 30 rockets have hit his town of more than 120,000, and i had an interesting conversation with one ashkalan resident, a restaurant owner, and he told me he's actually happy that the residents of tel aviv and jerusalem had to scramble for cover when they heard those air raid sirens. he said finally the rest of israel is beginning to experience a sort of thing that people around here almost take for granted, and this resident told me that he hopes this galvanizes the israeli public to support the government in

undertaking a massive ground operation in gaza. this resident talking about israeli forces going house to house in gaza in a very densely populated area with the population of more than 1.5 million, israeli forces going house to house to round up all those members of hamas. so there does seem to be a strong push among ordinary israelis on the government here to take decisive and final action against hama is in gaza. >> is there a lot of faith, ben, that that could actually be accomplished, though? because in the past there's been a lot of talk about decisive action and we've never really seen it in the middle east, have we? >> reporter: absolutely not. if you go back just four years when there was a last blow-up between israel and gaza, there was talk then that the israeli forces would put an end to the rocket fire, and here we are four years later talking about the same thing.

certainly there is a certain amount of frustration among people here that they feel that israel is under so much international pressure that the country may not, in fact, be able to go into gaza and conduct the sort of operation that ordinary israelis seem to want to see happen. tom? >> thanks so much, ben wedeman. i want to bring in rick burns, a secretary of state for political affairs. and riva vala. nick, what is it going to take to end this conflict, or is it just going to get worse? >> tom, i think the obama administration has been rightfully supporting israel because israel has a right to defend itself, any country would. but i think the united states is going to want to work with egypt, with turkey and ka trkqa try to convince the leadership to stop this very provocative

and hardy shelling of rocketing the cities. when hamas is targeting both tel aviv and israel, this is a new phase of war between a long-running war between them. israel is going to react to that. i think you'll see a very intense demonstration between them to cease and decysist. >> gaza is not a big area. at some point they have to run out of pockets to some degree, don't they? >> yeah, but that's a big risk. so the big driver of the israeli operation right now is the long-range rockets that were allegedly supplied by iran and which hamas has been using to target major urban centers in israel like tel aviv, like jerusalem. tel aviv has been the red line for israel, and as long as hamas has been in possession of these rockets and can maintain that threat against israeli population centers, israel can't afford to sit back.

so the air strikes, yes, they have been achieving some success, but hamas has still been lobbying those rockets over. we saw that today with strikes in jerusalem as well as in tel aviv, so it really comes down to that intelligence question. how many rockets does hamas have in its possession, and if hamas is able to get out of this with some rockets, that's a huge symbolic victory for them. >> is this something we've seen before, or is this colored by the arab spring and all the uprisings there? >> i think this is different because you have a change with the israeli revolution. you saw last week shells in israel. perhaps by mistake, but they did it and israel returned fire. you know it poses a major threat and now you have an egyptian government that is no longer going to be quiet when israel does retaliate. you had the prime minister of

egypt today. egypt will be very careful not to break with israel, not to break camp david, of course, but nonetheless, it's opening up that border and it's going to be easier for ham parks s mrkhama rocket territory. i think that has them much more worried and much more willing and able to go into places like gaza to try to deal with the threat and deal with the ruse of a threat. >> nick, you mentioned the egyptian president. i want to you listen to a fiery speech he made today about the people of gaza and what egypt thinks. listen to this. >> reporter: we support the people of gaza. we are with them in their trenches. what hurts them hurts us. and the blood that flows from their children is our blood, too. >> riva, these are warlike words. is there any real danger here of this thing spilling beyond this? for all these warlike words

between neighbors out there, does anyone else want to get into this fight if israel goes into gaza or will it be between gaza and israel? >> ij for right now we're seeing this limited to israel and gaza. certainly we're keeping a close eye on the front with hezbollah. israel was talking praise for hamas, almost like an older sibling, saying this is how it shows hamas is maturing. you saw a major victory over israel. hezbollah took a heavy toll from that as well, but they were able to challenge israel superiority. that's what hamas is going for here with these rockets, and we'll just have to see if they achieve that with this ground operation. it's going to be very difficult to reach very densely populated areas like gaza city. >> thank you very much, rev

reva bhalla and rick burns as well. so if all of this, indeed, does come down to open warfare, what will the battlefield look like? let's take a look because this is israel alongside the mediterranean ocean right now. it's 75% jewish. the economy is quite good here and the economy is below 75%. it's twice as big as washington, d.c. under 2 million people there. they're predominantly palestinian and their economy is very bad, unemployment very high. globalfire.com has called israel the tenth most powerful military in the world. why is that? well, let's break it down a little bit. they have compulsory military service there, so they have a lot of troops ready at a moment's notice, 176,000 active troops. they could also draw up a half million from the reserves pretty easily, so that's a robust force out there. look at their attack units here.

3,000 tanks if you add in all the army personnel carriers and artillery units and mortars out there, you have 12,000 ground units here. that's an awful lot, and of course their air force is for m m formidable. about 800 air strikes. this is what they use to strike at gaza. if you look at hamas, in terms of what they officially have in uniform, police, whatever you want to call them, only about 12,500 and they have nothing like the weapons the israelis have. however -- big point here -- palestinian militants do have a lot of rockets. that's what we're hearing so much about. i want to bring in a lifelike version of one of them to show you what we're talking about here. this is a som-2 rocket. they're easy to make out of steel tubes. they only weigh 70 to 100 pounds, something like that, so

they can be moved around, and they're fueled with commercial grade fertilizer. they fire with a lot of wollop. they're not very accurate, but if you fire enough of them, you don't have to be very accurate. and if you move on to some of their better missiles and rockets, you start talking about range. in this conflict, what have we seen so far? we've seen weapons fired from gaza that reportedly travel out 50 miles. you hit places like jerusalem and tel aviv, that is one of the reasons why there is so much concern among the government leaders in israel. they're saying about a fifth of their population is now exposed to these rocket attacks. all of that is adding up to this big case of tension over there and all the concern about what might be coming next. well, stay with us. we have a lot more coming up here as well, including more blowback from mitt romney's comments about how president obama won the election. and everyone gathering at the white house to talk about the dreaded cliff.

stay with us. i have a cold, and i took nyquil,

but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. thanks. that's the cold truth! 100% new. ♪ 100% greek. 100% mmm... ♪ oh wow, that is mmm... ♪ in fact it's so mmm you might not believe it's a hundred calories. well ok then, new yoplait greek 100. it is so good. ♪

our second story "outfront," a fiscal cliffhanger. for the first time since he was reelected, president obama met with congress men and women today to talk about the cliff. >> we had a productive talk today. >> i feel confident that a solution might be in sight. >> i feel good about what we were able to talk about in there. >> i can only echo the conversation of the other leaders, that it was a constructive meeting. >> confident, constructive, they say, but is that a deal in the making? "outfront" correspondent brie kheiler joins us. brie, what really went on inside that meeting? >> reporter: i am told, tom, there was no fireworks, there was no drama and that this is good news. after the cameras left the

meeting, you saw, really, president obama state what his position is, which honestly everyone already knows and house speaker john boehner stated what his feeling is on dealing with the fiscal cliff. and that sort of perfunctory here's my position sort of gave way to a back and forth between these two leaders. nothing was settled, but the tone was reportedly good and both republicans and democrats in the room seemed aware this would come down to dealing with tax reform and entitlement reform, and the source told me when the president raised the issue of increasing revenue, there was no, "no, we're not going to do that" from republicans, and when republicans talked about entitlement reform, the president agreed that was something that has to be done. >> well, it sounds good, but do you think when it comes down to

the brass tacks both sides are actually ready to bend a bit? >> reporter: i think they're ready to bend than they were going into that whole debacle that was the debt situation. there are some specifics that need to be sorted out for sure, exactly how to raise revenue. as you know, democrats would like to raise taxes on the wealthy. republicans prefer to close loopholes, eliminate deductions, limit tax cuts. this will be a bitter pill to swallow. this will require democratic and republican votes in congress, the kind of bipartisan vote that honestly we haven't been really used to seeing. and the other issue is that here in the near term, they're dealing with the fiscal cliff, these tax increases and spending cuts that will come in, they have to link that to tax reform and entitlement reform that they have to tackle next year. how do they do that? a trigger. what was the fiscal cliff? it was a trigger in the debt ceiling debate. they like them, and it makes you

wonder, are we going to be dealing with fiscal cliff 2.0 next year? we might. >> thank you very much. rebuilding the republican party. following some big election day losses, the question remains, what exactly is the republican party's future? former congress carlos gutierrez that led latino voters spoke to candy. he said he would disavow so-called gifts from president obama to minorities and young voters to help him win. >> i was shocked. i was shocked, and frankly, i don't think that's why the republicans lost the elections, why we lost the election. i think we lost the election because the far right of this party has taken the party to a place that it doesn't belong. we are the party of prosperity of growth, of tolerance.

these immigrants who come across and what they do wrong is they risk their lives and they come here and work because they want to be part of the american dream. that is what the gop is. >> james carville and raylon salom. do you think the party agrees with what mr. gutierrez is saying? >> i think mr. gutierrez has something a little bit wrong. you have a lot of people talking about immigration reform right now, and while immigration reform might be good on its own, i think the republicans' deeper problem might be that most don't see it as the party that attracts middle class interest. when you look at latino voters, african-american voters and also the blue collar white voters who stayed at home in very large numbers in this last presidential election, it's really about middle class economic interests not being

adequately represented by the republican party. i think that's the problem, not so much immigration as such, and i think mitt romney's remarks were very ill advised partly because of that reason. mitt romney lost because a lot of blue collar middle class folks did not turn out this time around. it's not about minorities or just about young people. >> james, if you were revising the republican party, and i know you never will, but if you were, what would you tell them at a time like this? they've had this terrible loss. their candidate came out and said something that seemed to send the whole party in an uproar, including a lot of voters. what do they need to do now? >> mitt romney is not going to be part of anything in the republican party. they don't want to hear from him again. the biggest gift he could give the republican party is to go to nepal as a missionary, disguised.

what advice i would give them is advice mike tyson once said. everybody has a plan to get hit in the mouth. you got hit in the mouth, and what the gentleman just said about the middle class is certainly very instrumental to any political party, but they come across as not much caring for people. if you give people a message, they'll receive it. i think they'll go through a catharsis, they'll try to change. but if they run again, they have to go to north carolina primaries, and those people are not interested in change, in broadening the base, if you will. it's going to take a skillful person. we had to do it in 1992. democrats lost five out of six elections, and in the clinton campaign, we were able to say, look, we're not the old democratic party, we're a new style of democrat. and i think the republicans will have to go through that kind of a re-evaluation of their

political party. they've got some trouble, but they'll be able to fix it, i think. parties generally do. >> it looks like for the time being, the horse is racing out of the barn for them. a new gallup poll has obama at 55%, 58% beforehand. do you think that's because he won or do you think the republicans are doing things that aren't making him look good right now? >> it was a very rough campaign, and i think a lot of folks are willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt. i think americans are exhausted. i think this was a particularly disspiriting election campaign. you have some very conservative governors who are making some really constructive noises about the republican party and where it should go next, and you also have senator mark rubio talking about things that mitt romney

wasn't able to talk about very convincingly. yeah, president obama is going to have a honeymoon, and that's fair enough, but i think republicans are rebuilding, they're gathering their strength, and i think the message is sinking in. >> let me jump back in with james. one last real quick thing here. james, there was a comment on abc news. mitt romney said this yesterday with donors. he said, quote, i spoke with president clinton the day before yesterday. he called and spent 30 minutes chatting with me. he said, a week out i thought you were going to win, but the hurricane happened and it gave the president a chance to look presidential and look bipartisan, and you know he got a little more momentum. do you wish president clinton would also be quiet right now? >> that's mitt romney's construction of the conversation. i know president clinton well enough, he was probably trying to make the guy feel good. he's very capable of that and he's a very, very humane guy. he knows what romney had been

through, he knows how disappointing it is to lose an election. what kind of a guy would repeat a conversation he had with a former president unless he was trying to make him feel good? we know who mitt romney is, he's a self-proclaiming republican. i know he showed by his comment about the people receiving gifts, and then he repeetsats a version of a conversation he had with the guy to try to make him feel good. it tells me he's not a very good guy, it does. there is no point in doing that, but i find the whole thing kind of offensive, to tell you the truth. >> we're all moving on, james. a controversial congress's bid for a recount is not moving on. it is stopped in its tracks. what a florida judge told

representative alan west today. and the israeli government says gaza is becoming a frontal base for iran. we're going to find out if they're right when we talk to cnn's fareed za ckaria when he comes "outfront." [ male announcer ] this is steve.

he loves risk. but whether he's climbing everest, scuba diving the great barrier reef with sharks, or jumping into the market, he goes with people he trusts, which is why he trades with a company that doesn't nickel and dime him with hidden fees. so he can worry about other things, like what the market is doing and being ready, no matter what happens, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense, from td ameritrade. anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah.

one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. [ female announcer ] live the regular life. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase.

we started the second half of our show with some stories we care about, focusing on our own reporting from the front lines. a florida judge has denied republican alan west request for a recount in the race against patrick if you a patri patrick murphy. he cited many discrepancies with the vote. west was denied because his appeal did not meet the requirements for a temporary injunction. murphy, meanwhile, declared victory last week. he said while they respect the court's decision, they have to continue to pursue their legal options. a platform in the gulf of mexico burst into flames today, injuring 11 people about 20 miles off the coast of louisiana. about 28 gallons of fuel spilled in the area. a sheen of oil stretched about a half mile wide. four crew members are in

critical condition and rescue planes are being used to search for at least two others that are still missing. federal authorities are investigating what triggered that explosion out there. it's been 470 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating. what are we doing to get it back? well, maybe not this. today we learned that the output at u.s. mines, utilities and factories fell in the past month, but that was largely because superstorm sandy disrupted production. that isn't our fault but it's certainly another setback. our story "outfront," fear of an all-out war breaking out in the middle east as forces intensify. they are worried about turning gaza into a frontal base for iran. so how does the conflict between israel and hamas hurt iran? fareed zakaria is here. i spoke to him earlier and asked him how the alliance between

iraq and iran play into the occasion. >> right now iran has its hands full. it's got syria collapsing on one side t has hamas in trouble. so at a very simple, logistical level, this is more demands on iran for resupplying of weapons for political support of various kinds, but there is a broad idealogical game here where iran wins, because iran is seen as the great defender of the palestinians in the middle east these days. this is fas tid arritidiously s. in the political sense, iran is seen as one of the champions of the palestinians. >> will they still be seen as a champion if israel goes debacle and pushes hard against hamas or do they risk losing some of that cache? >> not really. i think everyone understands

that israel is one of the most powerful in the middle east by far. it will do what it has to to run gaza. they say to the people of the arab world, we know you're supposed to fear us because we're the shia and you're sunnis and you're arab, but we are the greatest defender of the arab cause, which is the palestinian cause. and it works. go to cairo, to the shops of cairo, and you will see photographs of ahmadinejad, an iranian leader. why? because he stands up for the palestinians. that's the game the iranians play, and my guess is the more horrible the pictures are out of gaza the more there is a sense of this massive drift of power between israel and the palestinians. the more iran will be seen as one of the few countries that is willing to really stand up and speak against the west and, you know, they have, as you know,

very colorful rhetoric, but that's all geared towards this regional gain where they're almost outwitting the arab against the palestinians. >> let me veer off to israel for a moment. benjamin netanyahu is up for reelection soon. how much do you think what's happening now, this rousing with gaza, does or doesn't have anything to do with him? >> we have to hope this has nothing to do with that because this is a very serious business. not only is he taking his own country into a military operation, he is risking regional stability because you have a whole differentregional dynamic at play now. you have a region that has to react to its people, you have turkey that has already done it. you have the king of jordan placed in this very precarious

position where he can seem to be the only guy not attacking in the region. you have all these regional dynamics that are very new in the arab spring, and to do this for political gain would seem to be a very, very dangerous move and i hope that's not what benjamin netanyahu has done. >> i want to get to this very briefly. there is a new iran report that says they're not allowing them to do what they want to do. what do you make of that right now? >> i think that the iranians believe they have a fundamental right to richmond and they don't believe they should have these intrusive sanctions on them and intrusive inspections. until you have a deal, that is what they're going to do. we haven't spent a lot of time asking ourselves what the deal is that's going to be had. we know what we want the iran n iranians to do. that's great and i agree with that. how do we get them there?

if you're not going to use sticks, what are the carrots that we have? we haven't done a lot of create t acti -- creative thinking about that in washington. he knew al qaeda was behind the attack on benghazi, so why did he say it was the movie? stay with us. [ male announcer ] it started long ago.

it's called passion. and it's not letting up anytime soon. at unitedhealthcare insurance company, we understand that commitment. so does aarp, serving americans 50 and over for generations. so it's no surprise millions have chosen an aarp dicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. to find out more, call today. it helps cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. the wheels of progress haven't been very active lately.

but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for all day pain relief. try aleve d for strong, all day long sinus and headache relief.

our fifth story tonight on "outfront," the benghazi debrief. general petraeus told congress today that immediately after the december 11 attack in libya, he knew al qaeda-linked militants were behind it. according to peter king, petraeus' testimony today differed from what the obama administration officials told the american people in the days following the incident. petraeus said he helped to write unclassified talking points after the attack but had no direct involvement in writing the talking points used by susan rice, the ambassador to the u.n. who said publicly the attack was spontaneous and it was sparked by an anti-muslim film.

i know this is complicated, but stick with us here. the question remains, why didn't rice's talking points include the fact that this was a terrorist act and a planned one and all of that? listen. >> he said they went through a long process involving many agencies, talking to the justice of the state department, and no one knows yet who came up with the final version of the talking points other than to say the original talking points by the cia were different than the ones that were finally put out. >> national security council spokesman tommy veder says rice's talking points were produced by the intelligence committee, and that, quote, the white house and state department offered one edit changing consulate to "diplomatic facility" for accuracy. he was on the intelligence house committee and he was at the hearing with petraeus today. what do you make of all this? you know republicans were saying there were some kind of political shenanigans going on.

you heard the testimony. what do you think? >> there was never any evidence to back that up. it was clear the intelligence committee at the outset got that wrong. their assessment at the time, and this included general petraeus when he initially met with us, they thought there was a protest out in front of the consulate. they thought the violence took place either during the protest or after the protest. yes, there were militants involved, yes, there were terrorists involved, but they thought it began spontaneously. we now know there was no protest. but it certainly isn't accurate to say or suggest that the white house is trying to put aside this or -- >> hold on, wait a minute. we now know there was no protest. how long do you think it took us to know there was no protest? how long do you think it took for us to know there was no protest? >> i think the best evidence we got is when we finally obtained the video evidence, and that took some time. i think that probably took a week to ten days. >> let's say it took ten days.

14 days after the event, president obama was on "the view" and he was still using the word mob as if to suggest there was a protest. that's why republicans are so upset about this. they may be right or wrong, but i think you agree they have a reason to be irritated what was going on out there when the facts said otherwise. >> they were expressing basically they had gotten it wrong in the initial assessment, that there wasn't a protest. but there are a lot of conflicting intelligence reports about -- even now about whether there was a protest there, about what the motivations were and were they motivated about retaliation for the death of one of their leaders, was it related to 9/11, was it related to cairo, was it related to the video. i think probably the truth of the matter was there was a great many people involved in this attack and some were motivated by all of the above. but the idea -- >> hold on, congressman, that sounds like you're going back to

the line that somehow this was a protest. you've already said the intelligence committee said they got it wrong, this was a planned attack on 9/11 on a u.s. diplomat. correct? >> first of all, there is no definitive conclusion yet that this was a preplanned attack. and that is one of the key issues, not whether we call it terrorism or extremism. clearly it's a terrorist attack when you're firing mortars and rpgs. the real question was how much was this planned in advance and who was responsible? the intelligence committee didn't know that when they first addressed us. we are still trying to get to the bottom of the degree to which it was preplanned and whether we should have seen any of this coming, but to suggest as some have that there was a deliberate effort to manipulate the intelligence or mischaracterize it simply isn't the case, and what the general said today was the changes that were made in the multi-agency process of coming up with those talking points, they were changed in order to protect

classified sources of information. and the general made it clear there was no interference from the white house. he also made it clear, and i asked him about this, since the statements that our ambassador made on the sunday talk shows followed immediately after, really, the morning after in the afternoon in which we got the talking points, that reflected the best assessment of the intelligence committee that could be shared without revealing potentially classified sources of information. that is what the general said today. and for those who suggest that her talking points were watered down or changed for some malicious purpose or that she knew better, that is simply not the case, and it's inconsistent with what the general told us, it's inconsistent what the acting director morrell told us, but i think some people are clinging to this theory developed during the presidential campaign and refuse to let it go notwithstanding all the facts to the contrary. >> well, i think you have to admit, if officials said from

the beginning, we don't know, instead of speculating, we wouldn't be here, would we? >> well, they were being bombarded, frankly, by all of us on the committee who wanted to know, who wanted answers. who was responsible? how did this start? how did it get out of control? and they warned us their initial assessments were just that, and we're going to change as we gather more intelligence. maybe, frankly, more of us on the committee should have listened more carefully when they said they didn't know the answers to some of these questions but this was their best initial assessment. >> i really appreciate you being here. i'm sure we'll talk about it tomorrow. >> thanks, tom. up next, a major change in how we look at illegal drug use. dr. sanjay gupta has a special report. and no kidding, there was a run on twinkies today. we'll tell you why. been taking n for years. centrum silver. both of us actually. our pharmacist recommended it. and that makes me feel pretty good about it. and then i heard about a study looking at multivitamins and the long term health benefits. and what do you know? they used centrum silver in the study. makes me feel even better, that's what i take.

sorry, we take. [ male announcer ] centrum. the most recommended. most preferred. most studied. centrum, always your most complete.

[ male announcer ] a european-inspired suspension, but not from germany. ♪ a powerful, fuel-efficient engine, but it's not from japan. ♪ it's a car like no other... inspired by a place like no other. introducing the all-new 2013 chevrolet malibu, our greatest malibu ever. ♪ but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. thanks. that's the cold truth! how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise.

the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ together for your future. wooohooo....hahaahahaha! oh...there you go. wooohooo....hahaahahaha! i'm gonna stand up to her! no you're not. i know. you know ronny folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy are they jimmy? happier than a witch in a broom factory. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

let's see what's coming up on "ac 360." >> we have breaking news ahead less than an hour ago. another bomb exploded in gaza. local media reported bombardment renewed. sunrise just a few hours away in gaza and this is what a new day will bring. israeli troops ready to launch a ground assault, and we'll have all of the latest from the region from the reporters in the

field, tom. >> always a fascinating show, anderson. don't miss it. tonight, a troubling trend, more americans are addicted to prescription medication than ever before in our history. imagine that. it's an epidemic taking the lives of more people than those who die from heroin, crack and methamphetamine combined. out front tonight, dr. sanjay gupta with a preview of his special this weekend "deadly dose." >> the problem is profound. let me just put it like this. 80% of the world's pain pills are consumed in the united states. that's enough to give every man, woman and child in the country a dose of pain pills every four hours for three weeks. these pain pills are ubiquitous and we're seeing the consequences, someone dying every 19 minutes and i learned about this from former president clinton. he called me to tell me he had friends who both lost sons in these manners and the perception of who these people are that are dying needs to be changed.

i want you to hear a description of one of these men. >> he worked for the state department and he was going to graduate with a dual law and mba degree, the type of person that it just doesn't even run through your head that he's having a problem because he does so well. >> he was industrious, but he was normal and liked to have a good time. i promise you that night he had no idea that he was turning out the lights. none, and if it's true of him it's got to be true of a lot of other people. >> so, tom, again, the perception. your perception has to change who these people are dying of overdoses. they're our friend, families and our neighbors. clean out your medicine cabinet. get rid of those extra pills, you know. don't misuse these things and don't take them with alcohol, ever and keep in mind something that president clinton told me. not one of these people, these people who were dying every year, every 19 minutes needs to die and i think we can all make a difference. back to you. >> fascinating stuff, sanjay.

you can catch "deadly dose" this sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern this sunday. don't miss it. our producer went to five different stores before finding and buying one package of twinkies and soon it may be impossible. ♪ [ camera clicks ] ♪ it's hard to resist the craveable nature of a nature valley sweet & salty nut bar.

[ gordon ] for some this line is a convenience. how you doing today? i'm good thanks. how are you? i'm good. [ gordon ] but for others, it's all they can afford. every day nearly nine million older americans don't have enough to eat. anything else? no, not today. join me, aarp, and aarp foundation in the drive to end hunger by visiting drivetoendhunger.org.

hostess has announced -- hostess has announced they're going to cease production. it's just the latest financial trouble for a company that was at one time the largest wholesale bakery in the u.s. they currently produce everything from ding dongs to wonder bread and its most famous product unquestionably right there, the twinkie which brings us to tonight's number, 500 million. that is the number of twinkies that are produced every year. people expect a shortage, but they're just everywhere. before today's rush store shelves across the country were overflowing with them, why? because what they lacked in nutrition they made up in retro kitsch. they made an appearance in "ghostbusters" and zombiela